


Every Breath You Take

by sevenall



Series: Mercy Street [13]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Mercy Street AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 19:06:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenall/pseuds/sevenall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The parts: his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Breath You Take

Nemu wouldn't normally enter her father's workplace, but it's been almost an hour since he told her to wait in the car, he was going to pick up some papers. Given that the walk to his office and back is less than ten minutes from his reserved space in the hospital parking lot, it's likely that something has come up. She means to ask his secretary about it; if he'll be long, she can take the bus home and start preparing his dinner. After so much time has passed, it would only annoy him to find her still waiting for him.

There's no one at the secretary's desk, though, and Nemu hesitates, unwilling to venture further into the maze of offices and examination rooms. Her father would not approve of her disturbing his colleagues. She has almost made up her mind to go back out, when she hears a familiar voice.

"Miss Kurotsuchi…Nemu. Are you looking for your father?"

Akon comes up beside her, dressed in surgical greens. They seem to have been unused for actual surgery so far, for which Nemu is grateful. She inclines her head slightly, a little embarrassed when remembering their last meeting and how he had to cook dinner, not to mention her shameful seizure the next morning.

"Akon-san," she greets him. "Yes, I…"

"He'll be out in a moment. Why don't you take a seat, make yourself comfortable?"

Before Nemu can answer, Akon has pulled out one of the waiting room chairs for her and placed himself in another, effectively blocking her exit.

"Motorcycle accident," he explains. "One of these punks off Mercy Street, never was anything but trouble. Well, well, it's a set of lungs, kidneys, a liver and a heart, if only his next-of-kin signs the forms. And a cornea, the other one was too badly damaged, but that's head trauma for you."

Nemu feels cold. This is another side of the man who mends toys for sick children and walks people home to cook for them. She wonders what he sees when he looks at her. The disease and the insulin pump, perhaps. Or a fluctuating curve of blood glucose dampened by the artificial insulin releases.

"He's dead?" she asks.

"In all the ways that matter," Akon assures her. "But he didn't carry a donor card so his next-of-kin is being …difficult. Dr. Kurotsuchi is talking to him right now. It shouldn't take long."

At that moment, Nemu sees her father come walking down the hallway. She is very glad to see him, but keeps her eyes demurely downcast so as not to betray her relief.

"Akon." Her father's voice is curt. "Put the transplant teams on stand-by."

Akon scrambles to his feet beside her, the wiry body unfolding in stages. Nemu draws in her legs, to not be in his way and also so he won't touch her.

"I thought," he begins. "Our instructions…"

"I know what you thought. Put them on stand-by. We wait."

Her father's gaze moves from the departing Akon to herself, with deepening disdain.

"Did I not tell you to wait for me in the car, Nemu?"

"Yes, Father."

"Then why are you here?"

Nemu says nothing. Her cheeks burn with shame. He is right. How she fails to obey even the simplest of his requests.

"I'm sorry, Father," she whispers at last.

"It is of no consequence. " Her father swats away her apology like an annoying insect. "Go home, Nemu. I have my esteemed colleague from the Minazuki clinic on the line and a Mr. Zaraki in my office; it's likely I'll be in the theater all evening."

Nemu wouldn't normally presume to speak to her father after being so obviously dismissed, but Akon's litany is still echoing in her mind. Lungs, heart, liver... a person reduced to the sum of his parts.

"Father," she says, although he's already walking away from her. "Who is he?"

Her father doesn't slow or check his stride.

"The patient?" he says over his shoulder. "His name is Madarame Ikkaku."

FIN


End file.
